CORK minor footballers, nine points in arrears and under severe pressure, find a way with pure heart, skill and never-say-die spirit to pull the game out of the fire with an injury-time goal and win a glorious All-Ireland title.

BY TOM LYONS

Limerick senior hurlers, trailing all the way, under severe pressure from Clare’s aggression and their own wides, somehow find a way to dig it out with a goal in the 70th minute.

But Cork senior hurlers, for the second year in a row, under severe pressure with the game slipping away, capitulate.

Why?

Where was the passion the minor Rebels showed the following day?

Where was the resilience, the refusal to accept the inevitable, the determination not to let last year’s All-Ireland final fiasco repeat itself?

It just wasn’t there again.

To the dismay of all Cork supporters, this was another second-half collapse, just like the Munster final against Limerick. Last year's collapse against Tipp wasn’t a once-off. It appears to be part of a growing pattern with this Cork hurling team.

There was so much wrong with this Cork performance that it’s hard to know where to start. The Croke Park hoodoo? The Galway hoodoo in All-Ireland semi-finals? We can blame them, but the basic truth is this was another lamentable performance from Cork.

This Cork team played like robots. Keep possession, even when it meant half a dozen aimless passes across the back line, play it through the lines into the corners even when Brian Hayes was the only Cork forward winning his own ball.

Hayes kept us in it in the first half, papering over the cracks, but when Galway cut off the supply to him in the second half, Cork couldn’t change tactics, couldn’t adapt when Plan A failed miserably. Their robotic style was exposed. There were no leaders to change the course of the game. Cork were over-coached, over-instructed and had no Plan B. Why they looked so flat and lacking in energy from the opening whistle remains a mystery.

The most disturbing aspects of this sorrowful defeat, and even Ben O’Connor admitted it afterwards, were that Cork were outfought and out-hurled by Galway. How could a team that was on a mission of atonement for last year’s collapse allow themselves to be out-fought on the day?

The fighting Rebel spirit was sadly missing, again.

And what of being out-hurled by Galway? Last season, Cork were playing such fantastic hurling when winning the league that the bookies paid out on bets for the All-Ireland final. They were scoring goals for fun, seven against Dublin in the semi-final, incredible attacking hurling. This season? They have struggled to find the net in most games, and some of the top goalscorers have suffered a serious decline in form.

It must beg the question: has the hand-over from Pat Ryan to Ben O’Connor been a success?

Yes, Cork won every league game until it came to the crunch in the final against Limerick. They won all their championship group games until it came to another crunch clash with Limerick. What is that telling us?

During the league O’Connor introduced a number of new players with William Buckley, Barry Walsh, Cormac O’Brien and Hugh O’Connor making a big impression. Where were those players on Saturday? Sitting on the bench until the closing stages, when the game had slipped away. Is that progress?

At times on Saturday, Galway packed their defence with up to 12 players whereas the Cork defence was wide open, with loads of space for a player like Jason Rabbitte, who was beating Cork almost single-handedly in the first half. Why wasn’t he double marked by Rob Downey, who was a loose player in the Cork defence?

Lots of questions to be asked and answered by the Cork management team and the players. There is no doubting their commitment, the dedication, their wanting to win that elusive title for Cork. So, what is missing when it comes to the crunch?

Where the Cork hurlers go from here will define this group.